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After toiling for years as a Major League Soccer embarrassment, the need for a culture change within Toronto FC was clear by 2014.

Getting the Reds from there to here — MLS Cup champions for the first time to cap the best season in league history, with a downtown parade in store Monday — started with putting the right people on the bus, coach Greg Vanney said in the aftermath of TFC’s 2-0 triumph over the Seattle Sounders in Saturday’s final at BMO Field.

The first passenger to climb aboard, in January of that year, was perhaps the most important.

“We built from Michael (Bradley),” Vanney said of the veteran American midfielder, who has logged upwards of 10,000 minutes of action since then.

Toronto needed players who would put the team first on an everyday basis and commit for the long haul. The Reds found all that and more in their captain.

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“For me, if you put a group of guys behind Michael that share that mentality, you’re always go to be successful,” said striker Jozy Altidore, the MLS Cup MVP who has known Bradley since they were teenagers and played alongside him both in Toronto and with the United States national team.

“There’s no (other) player, for me, that I’ve seen in U.S. soccer . . . with the dedication, the commitment, who just believes and plays the game the right way. It’s team first always. It’s never about him.”

It was Bradley who initially put the idea of playing for TFC in Altidore’s head. What started as a joke became reality in 2015. Part of the striker’s motivation stemmed from a desire to help his friend win a championship, and to relieve some of the pressure on Bradley to ensure the game plan is executed to perfection each time out.

The magnitude of winning an MLS Cup in Toronto, something that has driven Bradley for the last four years — becoming an obsession after the Reds lost to the Sounders in their first crack at it last December — is impossible for anyone outside the dressing room to fully understand, the 30-year-old Bradley said.

When he looks at his teammates, he sees his own devotion in them. He knows they have his back.

“I think I’m a pretty driven person, and I think at times I have to make sure that I don’t wear guys out, because for me there’s no problem to go 24 hours a day every single day,” said Bradley. “But I understand everybody’s different, and so I have to pick and choose moments to say things, and to really be hard with certain things.

“With this team, it was incredible because there was never one moment where I looked around and felt like guys were losing focus, or were forgetting about what we were trying to do. Everything was about getting back (to the MLS Cup final). Every time I’d look around, it was just every single guy laser-focused to give ourselves another chance, and I’m so proud of every single person who was a part of this.”

It’s that commitment that has forged a solid bond on and off the field — coaches and team staff included.

“When push comes to shove, you want to step into the biggest moments with people that you would do anything for, that you love, that you believe in, that you trust, that you know have your back,” he said in the post-game glow on Saturday night. “I have that right here (points at Vanney) and I have that right here (points at Altidore).

“It doesn’t mean that every day is perfect by any means, but the relationship that I have with Greg, the relationship that I have with Jozy, the relationship that I have with Seba (Giovinco), with Drew Moor, and I can go down the line, I would do anything for any one of those guys and I know that they’d do the same for me.”

When Bradley is on a mission, Vanney said, he can cover ground like no other player, which can be attributed to more than just his work on the field. While he was already a top player when he arrived, the coach said he is always improving.

“He’s grown leaps and bounds in his ability to deploy, and get other guys to do what they need to do within our system and structure,” said Vanney, adding that Bradley deserved more love in voting for league MVP and the season-end all-star team. “His leadership on that side of things has been extraordinary, really.”

On the eve of the MLS Cup final, Bradley took an Uber ride to BMO Field for one last practice before the big game. It’s a trip he has made countless times, but the driver chose an unfamiliar route.

“There was a moment (on Friday) morning when I was in the car and it dawned on me: I’ve been here four years and I’ve not taken that same drive to the stadium once,” he said.

Bradley isn’t necessarily a huge believer in omens and fate — hard work and preparation are more his style — but revelled in a moment that he felt brought his journey full circle.

The next day, when Altidore scored the opening goal against Seattle, Bradley said he knew at that point that Toronto would win its first MLS Cup.

Victor Vazquez’s game-sealing goal in injury time left Bradley at a loss for words: “It was indescribable.”

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